BTV News+
BTV News+ is a 24-hour domestic & international satellite TV news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK & international news stories. The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest BREAKING NEWS. BTV News+ also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia & in New Zealand. BTV News+ also offer a localized international version of the channel, "BTV News+ International" available in Europe & in Asia. BTV News+ is currently broadcasting from the BTV Centre in London alogn with sister networks, BTV News & BTV World News. BTV News+ started broadcasting on the 5th of February of 1998. The channel currently has 7 UK bases each with their own correspondents & the channel can also call upon a wide range of resources & global bureaux provided by it's parent company WMFL Corporation such as reporters from the National NewsChannel & NNC Business (it's sister news & business channels in the United States). BTV News+ has built it's schedule around the main anchors with appointment to view broadcasts regularly being supplemented by landmark broadcasts. Although most of it's programmes feature 1 main presenter, when major BREAKING NEWS reaches the channel, it has more recently started to revert to the old double-headed style with 2 presenters anchoring. BTV News+ is known for it's innovations in news broadcasting & regularly wins awards for this & also for it's broadcasting in general. BTV News+ has started to revamp it's graphics almost every year, with the latest revamp being revealed @ 9:00 PM GMT (4:00 PM ET) on the 6th of May of 2010. In late December of 2007, BTV News+ began broadcasting from Studio B @ BTV Centre, whilst work on the main newsroom was being carried out. On the 4th of February @ 6:00 AM, normal broadcasting resumed from the revamped newsroom. This coincided with the channel's 10th anniversary on the 5th of February of 2008. From the 30th of March of 2010, BTV News+ again began broadcasting from Studio B as the final preparations take place for the launch of BTV News+-HD. Broadcasting returned to the main newsroom @ 9:00 PM GMT (4:00 PM ET) on the 6th of May of 2010 for the launch of BTV News+-HD & results of the 2010 UK General Election Overview BTV News+ is owned by WMFL Corporation under WMFL Worldwide. The station's headquarters are located inside the BTV Centre in Downtown London, employing well over 50 on-screen staff (anchors, weather forecasters, correspondents & reporters) & over 600 behind-the-scenes staff. The station has 8 of it's own bureaux outside the United Kingdom & shares many more with other WMFL Corporation & WMFL Worldwide's stations History Establishment & early years On the 8th of June of 1997, WMFL Corportion's CEO & President Roland Ortega announced to the British Academy of Film & TV Arts that he would provide a new TV news service. BTV News+ started broadcasting @ 6:00 PM on the 5th of February of 1998. "Visually BTV News+ looked very neat, with a slick & classy presentation. BTV News+ had gone for the same format as BTV News which had recently been redesigned to give the impression of activity & immediacy by placing the newsreader against a backdrop of the working newsroom. BTV News+, it was universally agreed as staff nodded in vigorous approval, had succeeded rather better @ the same thing. The critics were mildly taken aback. Contrary to some of the horror scenarios bandied about by the chattering classes there seemed to be little to grumble about. And as it's slogan of 'We're there when you need us' emphasised, it was always on" In the early days, the channel operated on a £40 million budget (plus £10 million share of overheads), which led one of BTV News+'s executives to propose to Ortega the station be closed, but Roland was "pleased with it's achievements ... there were overriding reasons of prestige & politics for keeping it ... the final hurdle of the Broadcasting had still to be overcome & the case for the acceptability of BTV would collapse if suddenly there was no news channel". By March of 1998, BTV News+ turned from loss to profit, when Ortega would say BTV News+ has quietly, if expensively, become the 1st building block of what we envision will become the premier worldwide electronic news-gathering network anywhere. Ask anyone in Europe & you will be told that along with BTV News, that BTV News+ has added a new & better dimension to TV journalism. BTV News+ was the 2nd UK 24-hour news channel after BTV News+'s sister network, BTV News was launched in October of 1997 BTV News+ since 2000 In March of 2000 BTV News+ Active was launched, a 24-hour interactive service providing headlines (& other services which ranged from weather, the top story of the day & showbiz) on demand. On the 24th of October of 2005, BTV News+ moved to Studio 6 @ the BTV Centre in Downtown London, after many years being in Studio 2 & underwent a major on-screen revamp. The new studio was integrated with the newsroom & boasted the biggest video wall in Britain. New music was scored by Adelphoi Music & recorded with a full orchestra @ Air Studios in Hampstead & mastered @ Metropolis Studios. New on-screen graphics were launched & the channel began broadcasting in a Widescreen 16:9 format. The 2005 relaunch also saw the introduction of a new schedule designed around "appointment to view" programmes rather than continuous rolling news. BTV World News+ TONIGHT, The BTV Report, Sunrise, BTV Afternoon LIVE & the daytime show BTV News+ Today were all launched cause of the '05 refresh. However the relaunched schedule was unsuccessful & from October of 2005 on, the BTV News channel overtook BTV News+ in the ratings. In response to the schedule's unpopularity with viewers, changes took place in July of 2006, with the removal of the evening programmes The BTV Report & BTV World News+ TONIGHT in favour of rolling news & the return to a 2-presenter format on BTV News+ Today. On the 25th of February of 2007, the channel changed it's graphics scheme to include the display of BREAKING NEWS in yellow. On the 1st of October of 2007, BTV News+ introduced another new schedule, extending BTV Afternoon LIVE. They also switched to a Sunrise format for much of the day, with a solo lead presenter & a summary newsreader. BTV News+ put more emphasis on interactive news with the network's new BTV.com/News programme. Further changes were made to the BTV News+ schedule on the 8th of September of 2008, with a new show from 1:00-2:00 PM GMT (8:00-9:00 AM ET), The LIVE BTV NewsDesk, BTV.com/News became BTVNews+.com & moved to 7:00 PM GMT (2:00 PM ET) every weeknight & BTV News+ @ Midnight was introduced. More changes took place during the early part of 2009. These changes involved major changes to the layout of the newsroom/studio & the introduction of a morning edition of The LIVE BTV NewsDesk. From sunrise (6:00 AM)-midnight GMT (1:00 AM-7:00 PM ET) on the 8th of March of 2010, BTV News+ was presented & produced exclusively by women to mark International Women's Day. In preparation for the start of HD broadcasting, BTV News+ moved to it's 2nd studio (Studio 2) on the morning of the 30th of March of 2010. Broadcasting from Studio 2 continued until 9:00 PM GMT (4:00 PM ET) on the 6th of May, when they moved back to the main newsroom & launched BTV News+-HD just in time for the 2010 General Election results. BTV News+ received a graphics refresh to coincide with the launch of the new HD channel, this was trialed during the soft launch for BTV News+-HD on the 22nd of April. The new logo for both the SD & HD versions of the channel was released before the launch Programmes See: BTV News+ programmes Reception BTV News+ is free-to-air on the Astra 28.2°E satellites carrying Sky Digital. It's also available on Freeview & analogue & digital cable. In 2007, WMFL Worldwide announced it's intention to cease broadcasting BTV News+ as well as other BTV channels over Freeview, pending Ofcom approval. BTV News+ is also shown internationally & can often be seen in hotels as well as being offered by some cable providers as part of their English-language line-up. The international version is shown as free-to-air on Astra 1L @ 19.2° east. It's also carried encrypted on a number of satellites for international reception, including but not limited to Hot Bird, Nilesat, Amos 1 & Intelsat 10-02. It's also usually carried on cable systems in Europe, particularly (but not only) in Northern Europe Regional variations Most of Europe, the Middle East & Asia receive the same version of BTV News+ as people in the UK, though with localised advertising. These feeds are sometimes known collectively as "BTV News+ International" & carries a break filler, the same to that of BTV World News. ATV News & ATV News New Zealand are different channels that carry variable amounts of BTV News+ UK programming & share some of it's style, but also have local programming & advertising. In Australia, a BTV News+ UK feed is also available @ all times, on ATV News Active BTV News+-HD BTV have released the HD version of BTV News+ on the 6th of May of 2010 to concide with the 2010 election results. In the build-up to this launch, they have been upgrading their studios & several bureax both in the UK & around the world in order to be able to broadcast in HD. Since early of 2008, BTV News+-HD has been using cameras in the field which can shoot in HD. At 5:00 PM GMT (12:00 Noon ET) on the 20th of January of 2009, BTV News+'s LIVE coverage of the Inauguration of Barack Obama was carried in HD on BTV-HD. This was the 1st ever LIVE broadcast of BTV News+ in HD. Michael Jackson's memorial service was also presented in HD. BTV News+ moved operations to a chroma-key "green screen" set in Studio 2 from the 30th of March so that final preparations could take place in the main newsroom. BTV News+-HD launched on Sky Ch. 517 for the channel's election debate which was held on the 22nd of April. For the 10 days leading up to the debate, ch. 517 displayed a countdown clock to the launch. Following the end of the coverage for the evening, BTV News+-HD moved to show a looping preview tape, this continued until BTV News+-HD was launched in full on the evening of the 6th of May of 2010, to coincide with the coverage of the results for the 2010 General Election Schedule changes When elections, either national or international takes place, BTV News+ edits it's schedule to focus on them. Recent examples have been the 2010 UK general elections, the 2006 Israeli legislative election, the 2008 United States Presidential Election & the 2008 United Kingdom local elections. At the end of each year, in December & January of the new year, a series of special 'BTV News+ Year in Review' shows are shown which look back @ memorable news stories from the past year In-Depth Series The channel regularly focuses on specific areas of society & current affairs, which allows for further in-depth analysis & debate. In the past examples of these series have included Inside Iraq, Green Britain & Crime Uncovered. Pakistan: On Terrors Frontline was shown throughout the week beginning on Monday the 23rd of March of 2009. The BTV News+ press release stated: "Over the 3 next days, BTV News+ will explore why Pakistan has become the frontline of terror & ask what the West can do about it" The series of reports has since won the 2009 RTS Award for Foreign News Coverage Identification & stings Roland Ortega (with his British accent) has long been the voice of BTV News+'s ID announcements. Since October of 2005, he has been heard @ the top of each hour introducing programmes by announcing, for example saying "BTV News+ with presenter's name(s)" & after October of 2005, he said "LIVE from the BTV News+ Centre, this is Programme name with presenter's name(s)" or "This is programme name with presenter's name(s)" Awards From 2000 onwards, BTV News+ expanded it's international coverage, opening bureaus in Africa, Europe & the far East. It won awards from the Royal TV Society. BTV News+ has won BAFTA awards for coverage of the 11th of September of 2001 attacks & the 2003 Soham Murders. Coverage of the 7th of July of 2005 London bombings won the 2006 International Emmy BREAKING NEWS award commending the "fast & accurate" reporting. In June of 2007, BTV News+ was named the "Best NewsChannel" @ the Broadcast Digital Channel Awards. It beat several other national & international broadcasters including NNC International & BTV News Bureaux United Kingdom *Belfast, Northern Ireland *Birmingham, England *Bristol, England *Glasgow, Scotland *Manchester, England *BTV Centre in Downtown London (Headquarters), England *30 St Mary Axe in the City of London (Business news), England *Westminster, London, England Worldwide *Auckland, New Zealand (with ATV News New Zealand) *Beijing, People's Republic of China *Brussels, Belgium *Canberra, Australia (with ATV News) *Dubai, United Arab Emirates *Dublin, Ireland *Hong Kong, SAR *Jerusalem, Israel *Cape Town, South Africa *Tel Aviv, Israel *Los Angeles (with NNC & NNC Business) *Melbourne, Australia (with ATV News) *Moscow, Russia *New Delhi, India *New York City (the headquarters of NNC & NNC Business) *Sydney, Australia (with ATV News) *Washington D.C. (with NNC) *Seoul, South Korea See also *BTVNews+.com External links